You experience a surge of motivation; each time, you listen to a motivational recording. It works for a while and gets you exercising. Then a strange phenomenon occurs. The effect of the motivational audio gradually tapers off, after a few weeks. You pick another motivational audio and the cycle repeats itself; until, you get tired of changing recordings.

You give up! You return to the old lazy you. You lose all the gains acquired from your exercises. With dreadful apprehension, you watch the onslaught of abdominal fat, transforming your hard-earned 6-pack into a muffin top.

You snap out of your depressive slough in a feat of outrage!

You’ll never let this happen to you! Your motivation is back with a vengeance. It is skyrocketing through astronomical planes. You are going to exercise regularly this time. You are going to shred your abs so insanely that, Bruce Lee punches will bounce off them like rain drops off Kevlar plates.

You have been here before and you know it. The last time you experienced this heightened emotional state; you got so distraught that, you spent months with your nose buried in the best self-help books on the market. The shelves in your study are still lined with psychology’s best nuggets.

You have all the information on “how to defeat procrastination,” “getting things done,” “awaken the giant in you,” “unlock the secrets of procrastination-protect syndrome,” etc.

The Power of KeystoneHabits

Why do some guys have it so easy? Why do some guys hit the gym, every single day, without fail _ but not you? Why do you break the sincere promises, you make to yourself?

The difference between you and the other guy is keystone habits. A habit is a routine action that is quasi-automatic.

If you want to transform your sagging belly into a ripped midsection, you’ll have to develop keystone habits.

Are you now saying that, this is just information like all the other information which, I’ve had? Are you now telling yourself that, it is easier said, than done? Is your mind telling you that, you have heard this all before?

You are right! It is just information! Knowing you need keystone habits, won’t make you magically develop the habits. You have to develop them, with willpower and mental effort.

Yeah amigo! If you don’t have an air-tight mental game, you aren’t getting fit _ neither in this lifetime, nor in the next.

The mind is the headquarters of habit formation. Every habit has a neural pathway in your brain. And those pathways are built with effort and the willpower to embrace pain _ the pain of self-discipline.

You procrastinate because you are seeking to avoid pain. All those nice, little rationalizations you use to excuse yourself from exercising are confabulated for a single purpose _ to avoid the pain of effort.

That is what self-discipline is. Self-discipline is supplying the effort to do what you planned to do, regardless of how you feel. That infamous feeling, which is best described by the words “I don’t feel like it,” is just a barrier of mental pain.

Embrace that pain! Actively seek it!

When it comes time to exercise, you must consciously choose to push past the pain (the “I don’t feel like it” feeling). Start exercising and in less than 5minutes, that pain will be history. You would have totally forgotten that, you almost procrastinated.

You must consciously embrace the pain every day, for at least 30days to form a regular exercise habit.

And then, you too would join the club of guys, who trains with effortless regularity. You too would have steely six-packs that can deflect arrows.

Like Bruce Lee said, “knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”

You have wasted your time, reading this post, if you do not apply. Without actually doing, the entire text would just be additional information. It all depends on you. You and only you can supply the effort to form new keystone habits.